There
once was a lumberjack who lived all alone in a small mountain village
except for his loyal dog for he had no relatives or family. So he would
go up into the mountains alone with his dog to gather firewood which
they would sell in the city to buy rice. One morning when the
woodcutter went into the forest and was searching for wood, listening
to the birds with the dog running ahead its tail wagging until he
spotted what appeared to be an old man ahead. The dog stopped short of
the thing and then ran off into the bushes. “Hey
where are you going?” the lumberjack called to his dog and then he
noticed that what he’d thought was an old man was really a bear which
was moaning piteously. Approaching closer he saw that the bear had an arrow sticking out of it. “Poor thing,” the lumberjack thought. “We ought to help you.” So
he took the arrow out of the bear causing the blood to gush forth. The
dog ran forward then and started to lick the wound. The lumberjack
meanwhile ripped some wormwood from a tree and put it on the bears
wound to make it better. “Lie quietly and don’t move and the pain should pass soon,” the old lumberjack said gently to the bear. As
the old lumberjack had predicted the bear soon recovered with the old
mans help. The grateful bear then like the dog almost never left the
old man’s side but would help the him haul the firewood into town. Soon
rumors began to spread about a bear which pulls a cart full of
firewood. So when the curious people saw the lumberjack coming down out
of the mountains they rushed into the streets to greet him and buy his
lumber. The
old lumberjack lived thus with the animals, and they worked together
this way for some time but eventually the old man grew too old and
died. The old lumberjack was buried in the mountains and the dog and
the bear stayed by his grave. Feeling sorry for them the people would
bring them food but they wouldn’t eat. After some time the dog passed
away as well leaving the bear alone. Later when people went up to visit
the grave of the lumberjack they couldn’t find the bear anywhere. They
began to look for him and beside a road which wound up the hill they
saw a large stone which they believed was the bear. Eventually the bear
stone was believed then to have become the village guardian so when
people passed it they would bow to it and say; “Hello Mister Bear, how
are you feeling today?” The people would also ask the bear for help
lifting their carts up the steep hill and it was believed that the bear
spirit would help good people, so that when they had an easy journey up
the hill they would thank the bear rock and leave him offerings and
pray to him.
